1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to holder for tags used to display information about merchandise and more particularly it relates to a one piece tag holder which snaps over the transversely turned end of a support rod that extends outward generally horizontally from a support structure.
2. Prior Art
It is common practice to display many types of merchandise on cards hung on a hook which extends horizontally outward from a support. In many such installations, information related to the carded merchandise such as identification of the product, price and/or inventory data is presented on a tag carried on the end of a tag support rod extending horizontally outward above the merchandise hook. Such an arrangement not only prominantly displays the pertinent information about the carded merchandise, but the tag holder often serves as a guard to prevent the turned up end of the merchandise hook from causing injury to those passing by.
In my tag holder disclosed in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 4,319,731, a continuous rib projecting from one flange toward the other of a pair of parallel flanges on the back face of a planar member engages a transverse slot cut in the shaft of a support rod adjacent the transversely turned terminal portion of the rod. The shaft of the support rod is thus gripped between the rib and the opposed flange and the transversely turned end portion of the shaft is gripped between the flanges, the back of the planar member and the rib. While this arrangement secures the tag holder to the support rod adequately, a groove must be cut in the shaft of the support rod which requires an additional manufacturing step and necessarily weakens the shaft. Also the rib can only overlap the transversely bent end portion of the rod by an amount dictated by the depth of the groove cut in the support rod shaft. Preferably, the terminal portion of the shaft is bent to form an offset section which provides a tight friction fit for the tag holder and prevents it from being rotated about the axis of the terminal portion. Again, this requires a specialized support rod.
The tag holder of U.S. Pat. No. 4,319,731 is extruded from a resilient resin material with the top and bottom edges turned over on the front face of the planar member to define opposed slots in which a tag bearing the desired information is retained. The bottom lip is spaced farther from the front face of the planar member than the top lip to form a ledge which can support a scanner for computer based inventory system as the scanner is passed over the tag to enter the recorded information into the computer.
The primary object of the present invention is to provide an improved tag holder which can tightly grip the transversely turned end of a support rod and resist rotation about the rod and which does not require cutting slots, bending offsets or other customizing modifications to the support shaft.